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The car factory in Craiova will close tomorrow (February 26) due to a shortage of parts. According to the company, the forced breakage will last for eight days, production will resume on March 10, writes the website maszol.ro. At this plant, Ford manufactures the popular Puma models.
Ford decided to suspend work for lack of microchips. This important component is said to be in short supply not only in Romania, but also in many large car factories around the world. Due to the microchip crisis, the auto industry may be behind by 1 million vehicles internationally. According to experts, the deficit will not be resolved anytime soon, outages can be expected for months.
Previously, the Dacia car plant closed for similar reasons for five days in early February. In Dacia’s case, the five-day hiatus resulted in a loss of around € 100 million, with 6,500 cars produced less than anticipated. Ford will have a much larger loss, estimated at more than 100 million euros.
Experts say the microchip shortage is due to a sharp increase in demand for consumer electronics last year in parallel with the drastic drop in car sales. Automakers have canceled some of the items they had already ordered, while Apple, Microsoft and Sony have inundated manufacturers with orders. At the end of 2020, the car market found itself suddenly, but the microchip manufacturers did not have free production capacity. The situation has not changed since then, because it is a capital-intensive investment with complex technology, which is why it takes time to expand production capacity.
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